Code Xanadu
by Shake N. Bake Mormon
Summary: Three students of Earl Haig Secondary School have discovered and activated a supercomputer hidden within an abandoned warehouse in unincorporated Toronto, and now Malina Aulnoy, Laoch Shertz, and Amanda Reese must face opposition thought physically impossible to save their world from a threat existing outside it. (Same 'universe' as "Carthago Delenda Est", so check that out too)
1. The Warehouse

**As anyone who's read my more recent works has seen me announce, I've recently dropped RWBY and disassociated with the fandom. I waited a bit longer to do this than I should have out of fear of losing what was at that point my primary fanfiction sandbox. However, in March, I saw a recommendation on Youtube, titled "Code Lyoko Long theme." I'd never heard of Code Lyoko before, but I've since binged the entire original series. Starved for content, I wrote a spec script, but I've also written a pilot for a spinoff. However, I figured here would be the best place to publish this story for the time being. I'm adapting the first chapter from a screenplay, but the rest are direct-to-novelization. That's actually part of my writing process: I make a story in either novel form or screenplay form, and then adapt it to the other, making changes in the process, rinse and repeat. For example, in the original screenplay of what became this chapter, I had a character called Isla, who basically spoke in Scottish idioms. However, I removed her for her lack of real creative design and overall use in the story. **

**So, what's this story about? Well, some kids in Canada find a supercomputer and a virtual world. An evil AI within the supercomputer attacks, they stop it. Simple, right?**

**This is Code Xanadu.**

**Disclaimer: I absolutely own Code Lyoko. PM me for details about buying the licensing rights.**

* * *

The old warehouse sat still, isolated from the rest of the city by forestry and only accompanied by a murder of crows. It had been long since abandoned, the walls cracked and aging. This, of course, made it the perfect place for a certain brunet boy and his female friend. The two teens looked to each other as they neared their destination, the former sporting a green tshirt with a blue unzipped hoodie and jeans, and the latter a brown cardigan, black tank top, and black leggings, completing the look with a large brown handbag and similarly colored trilby. The girl was the first to speak as the two trespassers drew nearer to the building.

"So, what is it you expect to find here again?" The boy shrugged in response.

"It's not really about finding anything. It's about the place itself. That nice 'abandoned building' feel, you know, a place that used to be important but now the walls are brown, that sort of thing." The girl narrowed her eyes.

"The sort of place that almost definitely isn't up to code, and by extension, a place we really shouldn't be?" The question was met with a sigh as the two neared the building.

"Malina, if you're that worried, why did you come?"

"What kind of friend would I be if I let you wander out here and get yourself trapped, or worse?"

"You could try talking me out of it." The boy responded flatly.

"I've tried to talk you out of EVERYTHING, Laoch. You keep outsmarting me."

"Hey, YOU'RE the smart one. I'm just the better rhetorician. Important distinction."

"Uh huh. Either way, you're gonna be better off with SOMEONE here."

"My hero. Or heroine, which do you prefer?" Malina smiled.

"I'll just take 'hero,' thanks." Laoch nodded as he grabbed the door handle, trying the lock. Against all odds, the door swung open, and the two glanced at each other. The boy shrugged as he stepped inside, Malina right behind him.

"Alright, remember, Laoch: we can't stay here too long. We have to be at school by seven, and it's a half-hour walk from here." Malina noted with a stern voice.

"Okay, so we have to leave at 6:40." As Malina was about to correct Laoch, he added, "It's called running. It's a fifteen minute run. Get there early like everyone should." The last two words were said with annoyance, and Malina simply rolled her eyes.

"Well, at least that means I'll still get a jog in this morning."

"And we get to stay here longer. Win-win." Malina thought for a moment.

"I'd say it's more of a compromise." Laoch nodded before beginning to wander around the first room. Malina looked towards a desk, spotting a box of newspapers. As she took the papers and looked at the dates, she noticed the last one to be dated November 8th, 1989.

"Looks like this is the last one." She noted to herself. "Either that's the last time this place was used, or the last time a squatter who cared to read a newspaper was here."

Malina looked around for Laoch, and found him looking at a shelf of encyclopedias.

"Hey, Malina, look at this." The boy pointed to the shelf as he spoke. "Those are all in order, right?" Malina looked over the shelf.

"No, number seventy and twelve are switched."

"Exactly! How do you even ACCOMPLISH this?" Laoch complained towards no one in particular.

"Maybe they needed both and just couldn't be bothered?"

"Well, I can." Laoch walked towards the shelf, grabbing the mixed-up editions, and as he pulled both out simultaneously, the two heard a noise from the back of the storage room.

"Quiet!" Malina barked in a whisper. "You heard that too?"

"Yeah." Laoch responded with a nod. The two stealthily walked to a spot that simultaneously acted as a hiding spot and vantage point, and looked towards the source of the noise. What they saw was a doorway where they had previously seen a wall, the section of the wall in question having turned inward by some concealed hinge.

"A hidden passageway? What would a warehouse like this need to hide like that?" Malina pondered aloud.

"Want to investigate, Miss 'My Father's a Detective?'" Malina rolled her eyes as she stealthily walked towards the doorway, her choice to wear Chuck Taylors now thankfully being more than the stylistic one. She leaned against the wall on the hinge side, and Laoch joined her on the opposite side of the doorway. The two nodded to each other as they quietly entered the hidden passageway, following it for what felt like a minute before reaching a room.

The room was filled with a soft blue light, and a raised platform could be seen in the middle. On the side to the pair's right sat a large computer monitor, or rather, several assorted monitors collectively forming one of greater size, all connected to a chair below and to the roof above by a metal beam. On the side of the raised platform was a switch, and at the far end of the room were three hollow, dark, and cylindrical pods. The floor was littered with papers and large wires, all the latter tied down. Malina and Laoch looked around the room in awe.

"Someone was working on something here and didn't want other people knowing about it." Laoch noted the obvious.

"Whoever they were, they seem to know a thing or two about computers." Malina added, noticing a myriad of lines of code on the assorted papers. "Definitely more than me."

"That's a first." Laoch quipped.

"I'm smart, Laoch, not omniscient. But whoever did all this has got to be something else." Malina rested her hand on the switch for a moment.

"Hope that doesn't do anything horrendous."

"Agreed." Malina pulled the switch downward, and the soft blue light of the room became brighter. The monitors turned on, though no active programs were running, and the hollow pods filled with a yellow light. Above the raised platform, a hologram activated, and displayed a small sphere with three protruding ovular masses. Each mass was a thin line of rock, similar to Saturn's rings, and each possessed what appeared to be a different climate: one ice, one an arid desert, and one a forest.

"Hey, what's that?" Laoch wondered aloud. Malina narrowed her eyes.

"I don't know. It's not a map of anywhere, not that I'm aware of anyway."

"Maybe it's a concept model of some sort of man-made planet or something. Like an orbital." Malina nodded.

"Our 'genius' being a fan of Banks' work wouldn't surprise me. But what would all this be doing here? That sounds more like something that would be going on in some dedicated lab in the United States, not a warehouse in unincorporated Toronto."

As Malina continued to look around the room, Laoch stepped into one of the pods, looking around the interior of the thing. Malina approached the monitors, and saw that one of them had opened a program for code to be entered. She also noticed a notecard resting in a corner of the screen, listing code and titled "Virtualization."

"What does this do?" Malina pondered as she typed the code. As she hit 'enter,' the pod Laoch was inside slammed shut.

The boy turned around violently, and brought his arms to his face as artificial wind blew upward. As this happened, Malina burst out of the chair and ran towards the pod, failing to see the window showing the progress of the task she had set in motion. The task was completed by the time Malina could force the pod open, revealing nobody inside.

"Laoch!" When the girl didn't see her friend within the pod, the panic began to set in. "Oh, no, what did I do?!" As Malina ran to the computer to attempt to figure it out, she heard a faint noise from a headset resting on one of the monitors. She lifted up her hat as she brought it to her ear, and heard a familiar voice.

"Malina?"

"Laoch!" The girl shouted in relief. "Where are you?"

"Malina? I can hear you, but it's more like a voice from heaven than anything else."

"What? Laoch, just tell me where you are!"

As Malina said this, she noticed the hologram on the table had changed. It now only showed the ring of ice, with a single red blinking dot on one of the chunks. "Laoch, describe your surroundings." The girl ordered sternly.

Laoch looked around, his surroundings very different from what they had been moments ago. The place was blue with ice, with almost nowhere he could see absent of some sort of glacier. The place was also well-lit, he noticed, even without the presence of a celestial body in the dark sky.

"Uh... ice?" The boy responded. Malina brought her hand to her mouth as it opened in shock. The girl looked towards another monitor, and now saw a window with a picture of Laoch. However, in this picture, she saw that her friend was wearing a black bodysuit covered with lightweight blue armor plates, which Laoch had also noticed in the meanwhile. Below the picture, she saw several sets of numbers, though their meaning was unknown to her as of yet.

"Incredible..." The girl whispered in awe.

"What'd be more incredible is figuring out how I get back." Malina regained her composure.

"Right, I can't imagine it's warm there."

"Actually, that's the weird thing. I don't feel the cold." The boy placed his left hand against the ground beneath him. "I don't even really feel the ground. It's like my mind knows it's there and it's just filling in the blanks, I don't know. It's uncanny." Malina narrowed her eyes.

"Well, I have no idea what any of this is. I might research all this later, but the priority right now is getting you out of there. Hang on!" The girl removed the headset and began digging among the papers on the floor, hoping to find some sort of solution to her problem.

As Malina began working on this, Laoch looked at his right hand, and saw it was surrounded by what looked like some sort of laser blaster. He fired it once, releasing three short lasers towards the sky, and then at some ice. He raised an eyebrow, however, as the ice didn't melt.

"A cold laser? What IS all this?" Laoch asked himself as he started to wander around the place. He hadn't gotten far, however, when something came around an ice structure.

It was cube-shaped, and each side except the bottom and the top appeared to have a circle with a strange symbol in the middle. The top was flat, but the bottom housed a set of several mechanical legs. Laoch started to step back, but the thing shot a laser at him out of one of its eyes. However, with a roll to his right, he managed to avoid it, and out of reflex, shot the laser weapon on his right hand at the monster. It was clearly harmed by it, and after only two bursts of three lasers, the monster spun and exploded.

"Oh, so NOW it does something?" Laoch vocalized with frustration. He aimed it at the ice again, and it once again did nothing. "Well, at least it cooks what it needs to." Laoch looked around, unsure if any more of the same were around. Meanwhile, Malina returned to the monitor.

"Hold on just a little longer, Laoch, I'm still looking. Did you find anything there?"

"Only this cube thing that tried to shoot me."

"What?! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Apparently, I've got armor and a laser blaster. Doesn't melt ice for some reason, but got rid of the cube just fine."

"Alright. Laoch, find some cover. I should be able to find something pretty quickly, and then we can get you out of there."

"Have fun with that." As Malina continued looking, Laoch looked to his left, and saw two more of the cube monsters coming towards him. The boy held up his laser weapon, and fired at the left one of the pair. As he destroyed it, the other fired, hitting him in the leg. "Gah!"

Malina heard Laoch's exclamation despite some distance from the headset, and ran over to it with a paper in hand.

"Laoch! What happened?" Laoch destroyed the second monster before responding.

"One of them got my leg. Apparently, there's not a whole lot of blank for my mind to fill when it comes to pain!" Malina looked at the monitor, and saw that one set of numbers had changed from '35/35' to '20/35.' Malina thought for a moment.

"If I'm not mistaken, you can take one more hit, but a third will do it. Find some cover, Laoch, I think I just found what we need!"

"I'll try, but I'm not sure where these things are and aren't!" Laoch turned the other direction, and saw yet three more cube monsters. "Oh, come ON!" The boy fired his laser blaster as he ran into a cave to what was now his right, damaging two but not destroying either. As he backpedaled into the cave, he turned around and found himself face-to-face with a different monster, this one in the shape of a crab. As Laoch fired lasers at the beast, it charged a blast of its own.

As Malina was about to hit 'enter,' she heard the pod Laoch had disappeared from close again, before quickly reopening to reveal her friend, in the same attire he had been before, but now clearly exhausted.

"Laoch!" She shouted as she ran to the boy and helped him onto his feet. Her eyes narrowed, however, as she started thinking. "But wait, I didn't hit enter. The code shouldn't have run yet."

"It wasn't you. This crab thing showed up and one-shot me, and I ended up here." Malina sighed.

"Well, I'm glad you're alright. I don't know what I would've done if..." Malina stopped herself in the thought, shaking her head. "Come on. It's only six twenty, but I've had about enough of this place for one day."

"Agreed." As Laoch moved towards the entrance, Malina removed a laptop from her bag, and began copying some of the systems from the larger computer onto her smaller one.

"What are you up to?"

"I'm trying to get at least some of this computer's data and functions onto mine. Maybe I can work on it a bit later. All I know is, I'm looking into this."

"Are you gonna get help from your dad?" The girl shook her head.

"No. I'm going to keep this a secret for now, and so are you if we're staying friends."

"Deal. Don't have much of anybody to talk to except you, anyway." Laoch shrugged.

Malina unplugged her laptop from the larger one, and placed it in her bag as she approached the switch. As she flicked it, however, she noticed that nothing happened.

"Huh? It won't turn off."

"So? This place probably doesn't have to worry about energy bills. It'll just be on for us when we come back." Malina raised an eyebrow, but soon joined Laoch at the doorway, and the two walked out the way they came in.

"Well, we don't really have to run anymore." Malina shrugged.

"We could. Being early never hurts."

"Are you sure? You looked pretty tired coming out of that thing."

"And nothing wakes you up like a nice morning run." The two nodded to each other as they exited the warehouse, the secret door slamming shut as they left.

* * *

The grass of the Earl Haig Secondary School shone with dew as the students entered the building. While the bigger crowds were yet to come, there was a modest number already there nonetheless. As Malina was about to enter, however, she stopped as she felt a tap on her shoulder. The girl turned around, and was met with the sight of a short blonde girl, wearing a red tshirt, tight tan capris, and black ballet flats. Malina smiled.

"I was wondering if we'd catch each other on the way in." Malina remarked to the girl as they continued walking inside.

"So was I." The girl paused for a moment. "Is something wrong, Malina? You look... frazzled."

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing, Amanda, but thanks for looking out for me."

"You're welcome!" After a short pause, the girl followed up with another question. "So what's the plan for tonight?"

"Hm. I was a bit torn. It's an anniversary, but only six months, so I wanted to go formal but not overly so, and-" the brunette was interrupted by a peck on the cheek.

"Malina, you always overthink these things. I'd be happy with whatever you have in mind."

"Of course, right." The taller girl reacted, slightly flustered but quickly composing herself as she thought. "How about bowling? We could get ourselves something to eat there." Malina suggested.

"It's a date." Amanda smiled.

As the couple discussed their anniversary date, Laoch walked quickly to his classroom. If he wasn't one of the first five students there, he was late by his own standards. As he entered his first period classroom, he internally pumped his fist as he found himself the second student present. The classroom was quickly filled, and as the teacher of Laoch's class began his lesson, the teacher of Malina's began to as well.

As her teacher lectured, Malina looked out the window, lost in thought.

_What could that thing be? That place? Is it some sort of alternative if Earth goes under? If worse comes to worst, as some sort of 'fallout shelter'? _

Malina shook her head.

_But then what about the things that attacked Laoch? What's their purpose? Security, big game?_

"Miss Aulnoy? Is something on your mind?" Malina perked up at the sound of her surname, but quickly composed herself.

"No, sir, why do you ask?"

"Are you able to repeat what I just said?" The brunette opened her mouth to speak, but found she couldn't remember what the teacher had said. She lowered her head somberly.

"No, sir." The teacher sighed.

"Miss Aulnoy, we all pay less attention than we should at some point or another. However, this has not been a problem for you so far in youre academic career, and I hope it does not become one." Malina nodded.

"Yes, sir, I apologize."

Malina could see Amanda's worried gaze out of the corner of her eye as she began to listen more intently to the listen, jotting down notes as perfect as ever. However, her attention was redirected again as her laptop began to buzz within her bag. The girl raised an eyebrow before raising her hand. "My apologies again, sir, may I be excused for a moment?" The teacher nodded.

"Of course. Whatever your troubles are, I hope they are resolved shortly."

_So do I. _Malina thought as she left the room, and as she neared the door, she noticed Amanda's hand raise as well.

As the brunette stepped into the hallway, she sat down next to the lockers and opened her laptop. The images on the screen were unfamiliar to her: one was a strange symbol, which appeared to be a set of two circles, one hollow and a smaller solid circle in the middle, with two diagonal lines emanating from the outer circle, slashing through the smaller circle and beyond the opposite point of the larger. Above the larger circle, two diagonal lines stemming from the same place as the other two met at a ninety degree angle. This symbol was to the left of what appeared to be a tower with a halo above it. As Malina pondered the meaning, she was joined by Amanda, who observed the same.

"What's all that?"

"That's exactly it, Amanda. I don't know what any of this is."

"Maybe some sort of virus?" Malina shook her head.

"No. My family can't afford to risk cyber security, so we have the best protection money can buy."

"Well, that doesn't mean nothing gets through." Malina nodded, but as she did so, she noticed the light flickering above them. The brunette brought a finger to her girlfriend's lips, silencing her as she also noticed the light.

Normally, a flickering light wasn't a problem: it was just something the janitor would fix, and in fact, the two could hear his cart rolling near. However, what was far from normal was the mass of black smoke emerging from the light. The smoke was somehow descending, collecting into a mass on the floor, and the two stood up as it rose again into a vaguely humanoid shape.

Malina entered a fighting stance, one developed by years of Tae Kwon Do, as Amanda took cover behind her. As the mass leapt upward, in a trajectory Malina knew would cause it to get the shorter girl, the brunette kicked well above her head, seemingly leaving the 'ghost' unharmed. However, instead of pursuing Amanda further, it rushed a new target behind them.

As the janitor writhed in pain, the entity appearing to have been completely absorbed into his body, Malina repositioned herself to protect Amanda, and as he stood up, both girls saw in his eye a symbol just like the one on Malina's laptop screen. They had little time to process this information, however, as the janitor grabbed a mop, wielding the cleaning tool like a bo staff as he charged the two. As Amanda shielded her face, Malina threw a roundhouse kick, breaking the mop handle in two, before using the continued momentum to chamber for a side kick, knocking the janitor to the ground.

As the janitor went limp, Malina put her laptop back in her bag and took Amanda by the hand, running for the nearest exit. As the two ran, Malina used her free hand to text Laoch, the message containing only three simple words:

/Warehouse now, urgent/

Laoch, of course, received the message, and promptly raised his hand.

As the couple emerged from the building, promptly joined by Laoch, the three of them were oblivious to the school's locking behind them, as the specter which had possessed the janitor moved into a nearby thermostat.

/17*/

A moment passed.

/18*/

* * *

Malina kept a tight grip on her lover's hand as the three neared the warehouse, practically sliding to the entrance. Amanda glanced around the room as Laoch grabbed the encyclopedias labelled '70' and 12,' opening the door to the computer room for the second time that day.

"Alright, so what exactly happened?" The male asked as they all ran down the corridor.

"My laptop buzzed, and this spirit or ghost or something possessed the janitor. We have to assume the two are linked."

"It's only reasonable."

"I'm sorry, what?" Amanda spoke for the first time since the light had flickered. "What is this place? What's going on? Malina, is this what you were frazzled about earlier? Why you couldn't pay attention in class?" The brunette nodded.

"Me and Laoch found this place earlier today. Whatever's happening, it wasn't before we touched this thing." Malina pointed to the supercomputer, still on and running from before.

"And this is...?"

"Some sort of computer. Laoch, ready to go back to that place?"

"Hold up, I'm going back? What'll that accomplish?"

"My laptop showed some kind of structure when it started buzzing. I'd wager that structure is in that place."

"What place?"

"Later." Laoch stepped into one of the pods. "Alright, do your thing."

Malina typed in the code again.

"Alright, ready for virtualization?"

"So that's what we're calling it?"

"That's what the note was labelled. Launching." As Malina hit 'enter,' however, an error message flashed onscreen. "Huh?" The girl shook her head. "Sorry, Laoch, it looks like there's some sort of cooldown before you can head back. Apparently, the system doesn't like someone going in and out in such rapid succession."

"Define 'rapid?'"

"Looks like a twelve hour waiting period."

"Okay, so now what?"

"Well, I have to run the computer here if anyone's going to be..." Malina stopped and looked to her girlfriend.

"Malina?" Amanda asked nervously. Malina and Laoch looked to each other.

"She couldn't hurt a fly if she wanted to." Laoch noted.

"And normally you don't have a 'laser blaster.'" Malina countered. "Do you have a better idea?"

"No." Laoch rolled his eyes. "Alright, you see this pod?" Laoch spoke to Amanda as he stepped out of the pod in question. "Get in."

"Excuse me?"

"Amanda." Malina started, standing up and approaching the girl. "I don't know how to explain any of this to you, and maybe I can later. But right now, you're the only person I can count on, and I need you to trust me. Please?" The pair locked eyes for what felt like a minute before Amanda nodded, her face still expressing the same fear as before.

"I trust you." The girl nearly whimpered. Malina responded with a kiss on her forehead.

"Thank you." Malina sat down at the computer monitors. "Alright. Do what Laoch just said." Amanda nervously complied, and audibly gasped as the door closed. "Launching the virtualization program."

Amanda struggled to refrain from screaming as the artificial wind started, and as she felt it disappear, she nervously opened up her eyes. She gazed at her surroundings, which were limited to mostly islands of grass and trees. As she looked down at herself, she found herself in new attire that appeared as if it had come from some medieval fantasy piece, the red dress starkly contrasting the sunlit green around her.

"Malina?" The girl cried out.

"Amanda! Don't worry, I'm here."

"Where's here?" The girl responded to the disembodied voice.

"Well, technically, I'm still in the same room as before. But think of me being there, with you."

"O-okay." Amanda took a deep breath. "So, where am I?"

"Apparently, some sort of virtual world. Laoch was there earlier, but he ended up in an icy place. I wager you're in some sort of forest?"

"How did you know that?"

"Your position's on this hologram next to me. I'm going to try and find the structure we saw. Now, Amanda: Do you have any sort of... weapon, on your person?"

"Excuse me?" It was then that Amanda felt a weight on her back, and as she grabbed it, she soon realized she was holding an arming sword. "Malina, where did I get a sword?"

"A sword?" Malina repeated. "Alright, listen to me. While Laoch was there, he was attacked by some cube monsters. Don't panic, but the system seems to limit how much damage you're allowed to take before it'll send you back here. By the looks of it, your limit's higher than his. He had thirty-five, you have eighty!"

"Are you kidding me?" The boy commented to himself as the girl continued.

"So, don't be too afraid, but try not to get hit by too many lasers, okay?"

"A-alright..." Amanda readied the sword, despite her unfamiliarity with a weapon of any sort, and started walking.

"Alright, I've narrowed down the position of the structure. There's an anomaly just north of you- that's the direction you're going now. Do you see something?"

Amanda narrowed her eyes.

"In the distance! There's a tower with red mist around it, just like on your laptop!"

"That sounds like it. Alright, make your way to it. In the meantime, I'll try and work on giving myself some light admin privileges. They won't be much, but I should be able to deactivate the tower. With you there, I can virtualize myself to your location, but you have to help me by making sure the area's clear so I don't get sent back here, okay?"

"Okay." Amanda took another deep breath before heading towards the tower.

"Malina?" Laoch started. "What do you think the janitor's doing?" Malina pondered for a moment.

"Laoch, head back to the school. See what you can do while we work on fixing this."

"Got it." The boy ran out of the room as Malina focused on the task at hand.

* * *

As Amanda came to a spot where the islands seemed to connect, she could swear she heard footsteps behind her. As she turned to look, her eyes widened with horror as she came face-to-face with a giant mechanical crab. The girl yelped as she jumped out of the way of its first blast, and Malina's attention immediately turned back to the virtualized girl.

"Amanda! What happened?"

"Malina, there's a giant crab! What do I do?!"

"A giant crab? That sounds like what got Laoch earlier!" As the brunette noted this, an image of the beast appeared on the computer screen. After a moment of thought, Malina instructed her girlfriend. "Amanda, you're going to have to get close to it. I can't imagine it would appreciate a slice to the leg."

"How do I get close without getting hit by those lasers?"

"Go left and right, like a snake! Make yourself a harder target to hit!" Amanda nodded, still imagining Malina being right there with her. The blonde ran towards the beast, narrowly dodging its attacks as the distance closed. When she came in striking distance, the monster raised a leg to strike her, but this was evaded as well as the girl rushed for the hind leg.

Amanda slammed her eyes shut as her weapon connected with her target, which caused the monster to stumble for a moment before falling.

"Malina, I hit its leg!" Amanda cheered.

"Alright! Just one more slice to the top should get rid of it." Amanda shut her eyes again as her blade once again made contact with the beast, and opened them as it harmlessly exploded.

"Malina, did I just-"

"Amanda, it's virtual. None of it's technically real, but it's a real threat to our stopping this thing."

"Okay, got it. Are you gonna be here soon?"

"I'm pretty close. Just get to the tower and I'll join you there, okay?" Amanda nodded once again as she ran for the structure.

* * *

As Laoch arrived at the door of the school, he immediately felt two things: firstly, the door was locked, and second, the handle was much hotter than it should have been. Laoch peered through a window, gritting his teeth as the glass burned his hands.

He could see the students within, and it was immediately apparent they weren't enjoying the heat. As Laoch looked around for something to break the window, the answer came tumbling out of another one, and Laoch turned towards the sound of breaking glass.

The student who had thrown the chair, the school's star athlete Garrett Jones, emerged from the window, and his class soon followed suit. Laoch ran over to the group, picking up the chair.

"Mind if I borrow this?" Without waiting for an answer, the brunet ran towards the first window he'd peered into, and with a quick throw, shattered it. As the students emerged, so too did a black mist, which Laoch observed as it traveled towards Garrett. Laoch grabbed his phone as Garrett writhed in pain. He realized he only had time to send a quick message, and sent the most comprehensive he could with the least words:

/School boiling, ghost got Garrett/

As he sent this message, he put his phone back into his hoodie pocket, taking up a fighting stance native to kickboxing as Garrett approached him, his eye containing a symbol Laoch had only previously seen on the block monsters he'd fought before.

"So, you're what Malina dealt with?" Laoch asked no one in particular as the ghost charged him. Laoch jumped towards the possessed athlete with a jab, and brought his leg up to feign a kick, but quickly turned the attack into a superman punch to send the ghost tumbling backwards. While Laoch's technique had never been as clean as Malina's, it worked well enough, and he leapt towards the ghost again with a back kick as it stood up.

Back at the warehouse, Malina heard her text tone, but paid it no mind as she neared completion of the necessary code.

"Amanda? Are you at the tower?"

"Uh huh. Are you coming now?"

"Yup. Hang on!" Malina entered some more code before running to one of the pods. It closed behind her, and her eyes slammed shut as the artificial breeze kicked in. When they opened, she was met by the sight of her girlfriend, sword drawn and gazing around. As the two made eye contact, Amanda smiled, and ran towards the brunette, who was now clad in attire reminisent of a Native American huntress, with what appeared to be a large rifle on her back. The latter didn't stop Amanda, however, as she embraced the taller girl.

"Malina!" The blonde cried out. "Are you gonna deactivate the tower?" Malina nodded.

"Yeah, just stay out here! I'll be right out!" Malina planted a quick kiss on the blonde's lips before running toward the structure. As she touched it, she found herself phasing through, and soon walked into the tower entirely.

The interior of the tower shone with a blue light, with what appeared to be moving and alternating code decorating the walls. As she neared the center of the circular platform, she found herself rising, and was elevated to a second platform above. As the girl looked around, she noticed a set of letters on the wall, but her attention was pulled away as a holographic screen appeared in front of her, and she placed her hand on it.

/Malina/, the screen read, startling the brunette with its recognition of her name. However, the text soon changed to read /Code: Xanadu/.

"Did that do it?" Malina asked herself as she looked around. When her gaze turned downward, she saw a blinding white light emerging from the base of the tower, and shielded her eyes as it filled her vision. Outside the tower, Amanda could see the same light, and reacted in kind as it swallowed the world around her.

Meanwhile, at the school, the fight had become somewhat even between Laoch and the possessed Garrett as the ghost gradually caught onto the brunet's general fighting style. However, both combatants turned as a blinding white light came into view, spreading to fill their whole vision within moments.

* * *

"Miss Aulnoy? Is something on your mind?"

Malina perked up at the mention of her surname, and raised an eyebrow as well.

"No, sir?" Malina answered, confused. _What kind of deja vu is this? _The girl turned to Amanda, who exchanged a glance, and quickly started marking her paper, and brought it back up to show the brunette what she'd drawn: a bullseye with three lines emerging from beneath and one from above. Malina's eyes widened at the realization. With this, she had failed to hear what the teacher had said, but responded out of memory.

"No, sir." The teacher sighed again, and as he chided her, Malina was lost in thought once more.

_So, we've just gone back in time? That's... _A look of determination crossed the girl's face as she grabbed her notebook.

_That's definitely worth looking into._

* * *

**Hey, you made it to the end of this. This is my first non-RWBY fanfic on this site, and I hope I did a good job. **

**Quick trivia about Amanda: she originally was going to have the 'friends of the group but not part of it' status until 'episode' 13, but with Isla out of the story, I decided to instead just make her part of the gang from the get-go. In addition, instead of introducing her in 'episode' 2, she is introduced in 'episode' 1. **

**Also, don't ask what made a Mormon decide to write a lesbian couple. I just sort of thought one day, 'what if Malina was lesbian?' and bam. Let me know how awfully I did that whole shebang, no pun intended. **

**So, quick rundown of health and weapons while on Xanadu:**

**Laoch has 35 life points and a laser weapon that fires in three-shot bursts, where each laser does 10 damage.**

**Amanda has 80 life points and an arming sword that deals 60 damage.**

**Malina has 80 life points and a laser sniper rifle that deals 130 damage, but can only be fired once every five seconds.**

**Also, quick disclaimer: this story takes place in 2007, AFTER the events of Code Lyoko, and still within the same universe. Some of you can already guess how this is going.**

**I think that's about it. See you next chapter!**


	2. The Storm

**Hey! I've got the obligatory two followers and favorites, so my story's doing as decently as any other! It'd be nice if someone left a review, though, because I REALLY want to know if I'm screwing anything up. Especially the lesbians. **

**Quick note on that, by the way: I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most avid supporter of homosexuality. I honestly don't understand the concept or reason for same-sex marriage. But I've been looking at media objectively for a while now and noticed that none of them have represented those sorts of people properly. They'll either kill off the gay character (Voltron), shout "representation!" as they're heading out the door (Legend of Korra), leave the viewer confused as to whether they were baiting the straight ship for six volumes with the plans of surprising the fanbase with a gay couple out of nowhere or just decided to scratch all the straight ship fuel in order to dump in a gay couple for the sake of retaining a dwindling fanbase (RWBY), or make the gay characters monogendered aliens with an entirely different reproductive process to sidestep every single criticism of same-sex couples while simultaneously feeling the need to constantly hide the gay characters behind this one character so that they can have gay main characters but not really because their bottom line is the bigger concern (Steven Universe). And I noticed the LGBT ENEMY UAV crowd was eating those table scraps and calling it a feast, and it pained me even despite my 'homophobia.' This wasn't representation: this was pandering. **

**So, I decided two things: one, Malina is a lesbian, and two, I'm going to do it right. No killing the gay, no getting-together-at-the-end, no surprise bisexual. Malina would have a girlfriend to start with, and the relationship would be shown in medias res. I also removed the words "Malina's girlfriend" from the summary: I didn't want to use it as a selling point. If you want to normalize this sort of relationship, these sorts of people, don't use them as selling points. **

**I'm trying to write this couple right, despite my biases, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated. ****(inb4 the chapter's name still ends up being the general reaction just because of specific details of what I said instead of my overall point and intent)**

**Now, onto the chapter!**

* * *

The hours of lessons went by in a flash. Malina's mind, naturally, was elsewhere that day, and as the school day ended, she borderline absentmindedly opened her locker, the events of the day so far whizzing about in her head. However, her thoughts were calmed somewhat as Amanda entered her peripheral vision. The brunette turned to face her girlfriend, a smile now appearing on her face.

"Hey." Amanda smiled half-heartedly in response.

"Hi." As the shorter girl started to pack for the weekend, she began with a sigh. "Malina, is there something you aren't telling me?"

"About?" Malina's thoughts returned to their original subject: the supercomputer, the virtual world. "Oh. Amanda, I've told you everything I know." The brunette whispered, not trusting anyone beyond herself, Laoch, or Amanda with the information. "That... other place, seems to be linked with ours. And not just through those pods, either. Laoch told me during lunch that whatever it was we deactivated had turned the school's temperature to unbearably high levels."

"It can just... CHANGE the temperature?" Amanda asked, fearfully.

"Well, we both saw it come out of the light. Maybe after I kicked the janitor down, it went for the thermostat. It managed to seal the building while it was at it, and Laoch needed to use a chair to break the window." Upon noticing she wasn't calming Amanda down, Malina added, "But it's alright. Whatever that structure was seems to have stopped and reset everything. I haven't gotten any new alerts on my laptop, either. Maybe whatever's messing with those structures needs to rest for a while." Malina noticed her own heart starting to beat less rapidly as the color returned to the blonde's face.

"That's good, I guess. But is there really no way to turn it off?"

"Not that I know of yet. I just copied the code on that note card that I read to virtualize you and Laoch, the programming language is beyond me. I'd need to find a way to shut it down somewhere in those notes."

"The switch doesn't work?" Malina shook her head.

"No. Whatever we're dealing with, it seems to have unbound the switch to shut it down." Malina sighed. "I'd say we meet with Laoch at the warehouse tonight to discuss all this, but we already have plans."

"We can talk about all this first, then go from the warehouse to the bowling alley." Amanda suggested.

"Are you sure? We can put this off until tomorrow, tonight's all about you."

"It's about us, Malina." The shorter girl reminded her. "And this is clearly important to you, so it's important to me." Malina smiled as she nodded.

"Alright. I'll let Laoch know. Casual for tonight?"

"Casual." Amanda agreed with a smile. The two soon finished packing, and interlocked their fingers as they left the building.

* * *

The warehouse was nearly pitch-black, save for the hidden room in which Laoch, Amanda, and Malina had met. The room shone with the same blue glow as ever, and the monitors lit Malina's face as she got to work.

"You think it might be some AI or something?" Laoch suggested. "That would explain it disabling the switch. Self-preservation and all that jazz."

"That's what I was thinking. Whatever it was, that's what activated that tower and made the ghost."

"Alright, makes sense. What are we gonna call it?"

"Excuse me?" Laoch shrugged.

"I don't want to just call it 'the AI.' Any sort of name pop up in the tower?"

"Well, first MY name appeared on the screen. But then it said 'Code: Xanadu.'" Malina thought for a moment, but suddenly remembered something else. "On the wall, I saw a bunch of code, but what stuck out most was a specific bunch of letters."

"What letters?" Amanda asked with a tilt of her head.

"In order, A, I, D, D, I, E." Malina recalled. Her mind was a steel trap, and she remembered such details with little difficulty, which she could imagine was going to come in handy.

"Aiddie?" Laoch suggested out loud. Amanda and Malina turned to each other, the latter shrugging.

"I can see it. Either way, it gives us a nice code word if we ever need to disguise what we're saying."

"It'd be nice to have a nickname for it." Amanda noted. "It's a bit less scary fighting Aiddie than... whatever else we might have gone with."

"So, Aiddie from Xanadu?" Laoch clarified.

"That sounds alright." Malina replied. "So, we need to stop Aiddie and whatever it's planning. The only way to do that in the long-term is shutting down this supercomputer. I'll work on enabling a shutoff, but in the meantime, that's going to mean stopping Aiddie's attacks. Only way to do that is heading to Xanadu when it strikes. From now on, that's our priority." Malina nodded with determination.

"Right!" Amanda cheered.

"Yep." Laoch nodded. After a moment of thought, however, he spoke again. "Hey, Malina, how long's it been since either of us were in Xanadu?" Malina looked at her watch.

"Well, it's been about thirteen hours for you, Laoch, so you're good to go. Amanda, it's been about eleven for you."

"So, did she get de-virtualized too?" Laoch asked. Malina shook her head with a smile.

"Nope. She took down that crab thing you got shot down by." The brunette chuckled as the boy groaned.

"Right, if you would?" Laoch asked as he stepped towards one of the pods.

"Wait, you're going back to Xanadu?" Amanda asked, some concern entering her voice. Malina raised an eyebrow as well.

"Why would you need to go there now?"

"Hey, if we're going to be stopping this thing, we're gonna need some practice in there." Malina shrugged.

"Fair enough. Amanda, do you want to go once your cooldown's over?"

"That's a horrendous idea." The boy interrupted before the blonde could answer. "If Aiddie attacks again before MY cooldown's over, we're gonna need someone who can be virtualized. And since at least one of us needs practice either way, maybe the one with less hit points to rely on should get a bit better at staying around long enough to be useful." Laoch argued.

"I was going to say 'no thank you' anyway. I've had just about enough excitement for one day!" Amanda replied. "Bowling should be fine, but not another go in there!" Malina nodded as she turned back to the monitor.

"Alright. Laoch, it's just you. Ready?" Malina entered the lines of code as the boy nodded. "Alright. Virtualization initiated."

The pod doors closed as the artificial breeze started, and Laoch closed his eyes, this time without shielding them like before. When they were opened, he was surrounded by a vast desert, with a few hoodoos and mesas being all he could see aside from the flat rocky ground.

"Huh. Might have to do some climbing." Laoch thought aloud. The boy looked towards his blaster arm. "But this thing's not gonna make that easy..." The boy squinted at the blaster. "Hang on."

Laoch grabbed a small handle on the blaster, and pulled it back. The blaster seemed to split along the half, with one half going over his wrist and resting on his forearm while the other matched its position on the opposite side. With a twist of the handle, the boy locked the split parts in place, freeing his right hand.

"Laoch?" Malina's voice came to his ear. "The map's telling me you're in the desert. You didn't feel the cold before, so I imagine you aren't feeling the heat now?"

"Yep. Could you configure that hologram map to show monsters, too?"

"Hm. Maybe." Malina thought for a moment. "I'm thinking a sort of proximity detector. It wouldn't be much, but anything that gets too close to you might appear on the hologram. All hypothetical for now, but I'll work on it." Malina nodded to herself before looking once more to the computer screen. It was now she noticed something she hadn't before. "Hold on, Laoch. The monitor here lists some stats on your virtualized self, if you recall."

"Yeah, it shows I have a whole forty-five fewer hit points than your girlfriend. What about it?" The boy responded with minimal irritation.

"Well, you have two fields she doesn't. One, I assume, is your ammo supply for that blaster. Fire once for me?"

The virtualized brunet twisted the handle on the blaster again, causing both sides to reconnect around his hand to re-form the weapon. After he did as asked, Malina looked to the screen and nodded.

"Alright, it started off reading forty-five out of forty-five, and you just fired three shots."

"Technically, I fired once. It seems to be burst fire."

"Okay, so some quick math says you have fifteen shots with that." Malina noted.

"So I can kill seven and a half cubes?"

"Maybe. See if you can reload at all." Laoch looked around his blaster, not seeing anything beyond the handle he'd seen before.

"Not that I can see. Think it's automatic? You know, once it runs out, it takes a second to give you more?"

"I wouldn't test that theory. You don't want to be stuck without a weapon."

"You're right." Laoch responded as a cube monster entered his sights from behind a rock formation.

The monster fired a laser at him, which Laoch had predicted. As the laser neared, the boy side-stepped the projectile, spinning 360 degrees as he moved perpendicular to its trajectory. The maneuver has only placed him six feet out of the laser's path, but this was more than enough to avoid it. He responded with two bursts of his own lasers, hitting the monster square in its eye with each to destroy it.

"Did you find something?" Malina asked as she saw the ratio deplete further.

"Yeah, just another cube. Already down and out." Laoch looked around, a smug smile on his face. "Now that I know what I'm doing, I should fare a lot better."

"Well, let's see if another crab shows up." Malina couldn't quite decipher what Laoch grumbled in response, but found herself smiling all the same. What she did hear, however, was what the boy said next.

"Hey, those're new!"

"What is it?" The brunette at the computer asked, the smile having disappeared from her face. Amanda stood next to her, a look of worry crossing her own face as she placed a hand on Malina's shoulder.

"Well, they look like bugs or something. They're a lot smaller than the cubes." Laoch reported as he raised his blaster. "Hopefully they aren't as durable, or I'm not gonna have the ammo supply for all of them."

"How many are there?" Malina could barely hear Laoch as he whispered to himself.

"..._Siete, ocho, nueve- _Ten." The boy's spanish counting confused Malina, considering he had no such heritage she was aware of, but she ignored it as she addressed the situation.

"Ten? Alright. Amanda and I aren't ready to be virtualized again just yet, so you're going to have to fend them off if you don't want to come back yet."

"Yes, ma'am." Laoch sounded off as he began firing. His shot hit its mark against one, destroying it in one go, much to Laoch's relief. "Alright, I can one-shot them." He told the girl at the computer as he side-rolled to dodge a barrage of lasers. One by one, the bugs were exterminated as Laoch continued utilizing evasive maneuvers.

Once the last of the bugs was destroyed, Laoch looked towards one of the hoodoos.

"Alright, I'm going to try to get some higher ground. I have two shots left, right?"

"Yup. Are the bugs gone?"

"I took care of them, yeah." Laoch responded as he once again turned the handle on his blaster, separating the parts to free his right hand for climbing. As he did so, Malina reported what she saw on her end.

"Hold on, you just reloaded. You're back to forty-five out of forty-five."

"Am I? All I did was pull my blaster back to free my hand."

"Well, that apparently reloads it. There's one mystery solved."

"A bit arduous, but I'll take it." Laoch nodded as he began climbing.

As the boy made his way to the top, Amanda picked up the note cards and papers littered on the ground. Malina noticed this in her peripheral vision, and turned to her girlfirend with a raised eyebrow.

"What are you doing with all those?" The brunette asked out of curiosity.

"I'm cleaning up." The blonde replied. "If we're going to be here often, we might as well make it look nice." She set down the larger papers, and turned towards Malina as she held the note cards. "Would you like these on top of or next to the bigger papers?"

"Next to them, thank you." Malina thought for a moment. "If they have labels, could you sort them in alphabetical order please?" Amanda nodded, and smiled in the way that always forced Malina to smile too. "Thank you. As soon as Laoch's back, we'll head to the bowling alley, okay?"

"Okay." As Amanda resumed cleaning, Malina heard Laoch through the headset once again.

"Agh, it's a crab!"

"Laoch! Are you on the high ground?"

"Yeah!" The boy yelled as he ducked below the larger monster's shot. He stood back up and re-formed the blaster, firing three bursts at the top of the crab before ducking once again. The monster charged a shot as Laoch stood up to fire again, and fired at the boy.

Laoch, while not fast enough to move out of the way, was fast enough to raise his arm to block it. The boy stumbled back as the projectile made contact, falling off the hoodoo in the process. Thankfully, he landed on his feet, turning the fall into a backwards roll as he did.

"Laoch!" Malina shouted. "The other extra field just fell from twenty-five out of twenty-five to zero! And you just lost fifteen hit points!"

"I noticed!" Laoch yelled as he ran to a rock formation, avoiding the crab's lasers as he did so. As he rolled behind the formation, he fired from cover at the advancing beast.

"Alright, Laoch, remember: you can only safely take one more of those!" Malina paused for a moment. "Hang on, that extra stat's rising again. Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five out of twenty-five! Laoch, what did you do when you got hit?"

"Uh, I took damage!" Laoch stated the obvious.

"I mean, what's that other stat?"

"Maybe it's a second set of hit points that I can regenerate? It hit my arm that time." The boy theorized. To test the theory, he stepped out of cover momentarily, grunting as he allowed himself to be hit in the arm by one of the smaller lasers before ducking back behind cover.

"Fifteen out of twenty-five now, but you didn't lose any life points!"

"Okay, so I was right. My arms have a second set of hit points for some reason." Malina thought for a moment as the extra stat slowly rose back to its original value.

"Alright, so you have thirty-five hit points that don't regenerate, and twenty-five that do. Sixty total, but now you're stuck with only forty-five. Better than the twenty you were at!"

"Yup!" Laoch agreed as he fired from cover once more. This time, however, the monster was much closer, and Laoch side-rolled further out of cover as it fired another laser. This, to almost anyone, would have seemed a worse decision than rolling the opposite direction, but Laoch performed another roll, a forward roll, to get closer to his target.

The monster raised its leg as Laoch clung to it with both arms, and as it positioned the boy to shoot it, he jumped on top of the thing. The crab started looking around in all directions, unaware of his current location. Laoch pointed his blaster at the symbol on top of the beast and opened fire.

The crab was now aware of his location, but unable to do anything about it, and fell after four bursts, exploding harmlessly as Laoch slid off of it.

"Crab down!" Laoch cheered exhaustedly.

"Really? Nice job!" Malina complimented, despite not having seen the fight itself. "Fighting Xana should be easy with you and Amanda around!"

"Yeah, it's the real world attacks that're gonna suck to deal with!" Laoch commented as he looked around. He had no time to react, however, before a bright orange vertical beam made direct contact, devirtualizing him instantaneously.

* * *

"Laoch!" Malina yelled as the pod opened to reveal her friend. Amanda ran over to the boy and helped him stand.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Laoch grunted. "But SOMETHING hit me for more damage than I've ever been hit with before."

"Great, so now there's something else for Amanda to beat before you do." Malina smirked.

"Hey, she's got eighty hit points. I only have sixty even WITH shields." Laoch complained.

"Shields?" Amanda raised an eyebrow.

"That's just what I'm calling the regenerating hit points." Laoch clarified.

"Well, so much for Xanadu being easy." Malina sighed before turning to the shorter girl with a smile. "Come on, Amanda. We've been here long enough for tonight. Let's get to the bowling alley." Amanda smiled and rose to follow her girlfriend, Laoch trailing behind the two to close off the computer lab. Malina stopped for a beat in the doorway and sighed. _Aiddie's not going to go down without a fight. If it disabled the shutoff, it's not going to just let us turn it back on again. _She shrugged off the thoughts for now: she had a date, after all.

As they left, none of them noticed the new window on the supercomputer monitor. It displayed very little: only a camera feed capturing a two-thirds shot of the supports of a truss bridge.

* * *

The bowling alley was as noisy as it always was, especially for a Friday night in late November. The two girlfriends put on bowling shoes, each with a smile on their face.

"You're probably going to win." Amanda commented. "I don't do much bowling."

"Neither do I."

"Maybe, but rolling a bowling ball is kind of like pitching a softball. And you do that a few dozen times every Saturday." The blonde countered.

"Only the last two phases." As Amanda raised an eyebrow, Malina realized she needed to clarify. "Bowling doesn't have a windup like pitching does."

"Oh. Still, you're the one who can throw hard."

"Either way, it doesn't matter. It's just for fun, after all."

"I know. Who's going first?"

"How about I go first, and you can see what I do?" Amanda nodded.

"That might help."

Malina grabbed a ball and stepped up as Amanda put in their names. The brunette turned to her girlfriend for a moment, and upon seeing a thumbs-up, turned back towards the pins.

With three graceful steps, she approached the line and released. The ball rolled swiftly, hitting the first pin only slightly off-angle.

Malina watched the machine reset only a single pin as she waited for her ball. Once she had a new one in hand, she closed her eyes and took a breath, before repeating the motions of before.

/SPARE!/ The score screen read as Malina and Amanda traded places. Amanda took a deep breath, though a much more nervous one than her girlfriend's, and went through a similar motion.

The ball rolled at an angle, settling into the gutter around three-quarters the way to the pins.

"Aw..." Amanda whimpered as she waited for a new ball. Malina stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry. It's fine to not do great sometimes." After a moment of thought, Malina added, "Maybe we can grab something to eat after the third frame." The blonde nodded.

"That'd be nice. I didn't realize how hungry I was after all of that." Amanda lowered her gaze as she ended the sentence, but felt her face being lifted by the taller brunette.

"Don't worry about any of 'that' right now. We'll take care of it, but right now, it's about us, okay?" Amanda nodded. "Here, I'll help you with this next bowl."

Amanda held the bowling ball, Malina standing behind her with hands placed over hers.

"Alright, now, take a deep breath." The brunette instructed calmly, and the blonde complied. "Now, walk forward quickly..." the two stepped together, rapidly approaching the line as Malina finished, "and release!"

With the taller girl's guidance, Amanda managed to knock down seven pins. This, naturally, caused her to cheer, wrapping her arms around Malina as she jumped ecstatically.

"Hey, you did it!" Malina cheered with the blonde. "If you do that every time, you'll be getting spares every frame!"

"Thank you, Malina!"

"Anything for the best girlfriend I could ask for." The two smiled at each other for a moment before exchanging a short kiss. For what it lacked in duration, it made up for in pure bliss, and as it broke, they couldn't help but smile. "How did I luck into being with you?"

"It wasn't luck, Malina." Amanda replied as she hugged the taller girl again. "I was in love the moment I saw you."

"I'm glad I came around." Malina smiled. After a few seconds, she chuckled. "I hate to kill the moment, but I think it's my turn to bowl." Amanda nodded, and took a seat as Malina grabbed her next ball.

* * *

Malina and Amanda walked side-by-side in the cold night, their fingers intertwined. The two girls couldn't help but smile as the events of the night played over in their heads, and as the two arrived at Amanda's house, the blonde embraced her girlfriend.

"I had fun tonight."

"So did I." The brunette's smile grew as she returned the gesture. She pulled away, though her arms were still wrapped around the shorter girl as she spoke. "These last six months have been the best of my life. The bar's not high, we both know that, but you've made everything worth it. I don't know what I'd be doing without you."

"When I first saw you standing on the pitcher's mound, it all just... clicked." Amanda replied. "You were beautiful, strong, and fierce, and I could see your smarts in your eyes. Always examining every detail in your vision." The blonde brought her girlfriend close to her once again. "You were perfect. You ARE."

"Even after you learned about my childhood?"

"Especially after that, Malina. You've become such an amazing person even despite all of that, and I love you even more because of it."

"That's what I love about you, Amanda. You're kind to everyone around you when you don't even have to be. You see the good in everything and everyone. You gave me a chance, and I'm so sorry I didn't notice you sooner." Malina paused as she once again pulled out of the embrace for a moment. "YOU'RE perfect."

The two pairs of eyes seemed to get lost in each other, deep brown looking downward into sky blue, for what felt like a whole minute. Then, very softly, the two pairs of lips met as their eyelids shut. Unlike the previous kiss, this one lasted for several seconds, the moonlit pair enjoying each one.

Amanda never wanted the kiss to end, but knew it had to, and slowly pulled away as her girlfriend did the same. The two came together for one last hug for the night, and the blonde smiled to the taller girl as she unlatched the courtyard gate.

"I'm looking forward to the next six months. Aiddie or not, I'll be there for you."

"The same to you. None of that changes anything between us, okay?"

Amanda nodded, and turned to walk inside as Malina turned to walk to her own house. She arrived only about a quarter of an hour later, and let herself in.

From the front door, she could see her father working in the study and her mother lounging in the living room. She knew they would bombard her with questions as to how the date went, and for this reason, she quietly went to her bedroom.

The brunette rested herself on her bed, opening her laptop. She could see some of the functions of the supercomputer which she had imported to the smaller device, but she would still be far less effective working from home.

_But, seeing as I'm already home for the night, I might as well get some work done here._ The girl thought to herself. Fingers clacked against keys as she tried some codes she remembered, as well as an exercise of trial-and-error she had devised to learn perhaps more coding, and possibly even create some functions of her own.

The girl found no luck for nearly an hour and a half, but at last, she figured out a way to directly connect the visuals of the supercomputer to her laptop. She wouldn't have access to the same functions as the supercomputer: she wasn't there yet. However, if someone else were to be working on the supercomputer, she could at least observe their actions through her laptop. Malina thought little of this, of course, as it didn't serve much purpose beyond that. However, the live camera feed she had missed earlier was now directly in her vision.

"What the-?" The girl muttered to herself. Quickly, she began to type more lines of code, and after another quarter of an hour, brought the live feed to her personal computer.

The feed showed virtually nothing- only a truss bridge and a night sky. However, as Malina pressed an extra key, she could hear a sound:

"Warning, you are being monitored by a security camera." A robotic voice at the other end of the feed said. Malina blinked.

"Did I do that?" She asked herself. To test the theory, she pressed the key again.

"Warning, you are being-"

"Alright, so it's live." The girl mumbled to herself, her curiosity piqued.

_But where is that? And what does it have to do with all this? _The girl stumped herself with these questions. However, she followed this with a determined nod. _That's the next mystery._

* * *

**There we are, Chapter 2 done! Hopefully this didn't leave anyone confused, and everyone got some chance to shine. I'll admit, Amanda is definitely the hardest character to write for, and not just because she's lesbian: her personality as a whole isn't one I personally am very fond of. The Sickeningly Sweet type, you know.**

**Hey, while we're here, I wanted to flag something up. So, back when I was writing for RWBY, my main story had a sort of "Guest Author System," in which other users on the site could write a scene or an entire chapter of the story, and then I would make small adjustments (run through with them afterwards, of course) before placing it into the story, giving credit where it was due in the notes before the chapter. I had a few people guest author, Mew Shadowfang and Pixelmancer chiefest among them. I was wondering if maybe something similar could happen here! If anyone's interested in writing a small scene or even full chapter of this story, hit me up with a PM!**

**Anyway, see you all in the next one!**


	3. Pressure

**Hello, everyone! ****I wanted to let you all know about my Guest Author System (TM) (for legal reasons, that TM's a joke) from one of my old stories, where other authors on the site could write a scene for the story, which I would reasonably edit and place into the story, making sure to credit them in the beginning of the chapter. I've had a few other writers take part in that, and I'd love to see something similar for this story! If you ever want to write a scene or something, just PM me!**

**In addition to that, I've been in contact with The Apocryphal One, another author on this site who is currently writing "Carthago Delenda Est," which is a really great story that I recommend you all check out! Especially since this story is within the same canon as hers, up to at least chapter 30 of that story, at which point mine does branch off slightly at the end.**

**And yes, I did edit the first chapter slightly to give Malina a brown trilby. Yes, it actually is important to her. She lifts it a smidge to put on the headset.**

**Now, without further ado, onto the chapter!**

* * *

The day had started off just like any other: Malina and Laoch sat at the lunch table alone, waiting to be joined by Amanda. This had been routine for at least seven months, as Malina could recall: even during the summer, Amanda would meet herself and Laoch at the diner every day, and even before she and Amanda had met, she and Laoch had been close friends for about four years. However, what WAS out of the ordinary was the topic of discussion.

While there was hardly a norm- some days, the two would discuss the merits of piracy as a means of protest against the monopolistic business practices of digital distributors, and on others, the intricacies of the lore of that game series Laoch seemed to like- today was an entirely different conversation.

"So, when do you think Aiddie's gonna attack again? I'd have figured it would try again just about immediately."

"I think it might need a sort of rest period- a cooldown. Like how we need one for the scanners." Malina reasoned.

"And how long do you think the cooldown is?" Malina shrugged.

"I don't know. If we give it a couple attacks, we should be able to figure it out."

"It's looking like at least twelve hours so far."

"Twenty-four." Malina corrected. "It wasn't quite lunch yet when it attacked yesterday."

"Alright, twenty-four. We've got a bit of leeway." Laoch thought for a moment. "If I had to wait 24 hours after a plan went south, and I had the computational power of a supercomputer, I'd use that time to simulate my next plan a few trillion times. If there's a reasonable chance for failure, throw out the plan."

"Yeah, but what would your motive be?" Malina asked. "What would motivate any AI to try and kill an entire school?"

"As opposed to literally anything else, or just in general?"

"Both."

"Well, first, because we're the biggest threats and just so happen to be here, and second, I don't know. Power's a human notion, and unless Aiddie can pass the Turing test with flying colors, that guess is out the window."

"We weren't here when it turned up the thermostat. It possessed the janitor and attacked me, and then touched the thermostat once we all left."

"Might've thought I was still there."

"Maybe." Malina pondered as she sipped her glass of water. "By the way, I found something while working on the deactivation last night. I'll tell you and Amanda about it once she gets here." Laoch took a swig of his root beer before replying.

"Sounds good."

As the two spoke in the lunchroom, elsewhere an outlet sparked with foreign energy as a smoke-like form rose. There were no witnesses in the janitor's closet as three more of the figures appeared from the socket, and they went on to possess the four vacuum cleaners within the room, each one roaring to life even without a cord connecting them to a power supply. The four vacuum cleaners emerged from the room, each heading a separate direction.

Back in the lunchroom, Malina smiled as Amanda sat down next to her, and the two exchanged a short kiss.

"Did you get anything done last night?" The blonde asked as she started on her meal.

"Not much, but I found something. I was waiting until you got here to tell both of you."

"Really? What is it?"

"One of the ongoing functions on the supercomputer is a live cam. All I could see on it was a bridge, so it's not just a view of outside the warehouse."

"How do you know it's live?" Laoch raised an eyebrow.

"I pressed a button, and it played an audio cue. Worked with the next press as well. Either it's a ludicrous coincidence, or it's live."

"Okay, so it's live. But where is it?"

"That's the problem. I don't know where it is. I'll try to figure it out as I go along. Wherever that camera is, there should be more information on the person who made the supercomputer as well."

"How are you gonna find it? I don't think walking around until you see yourself on camera is going to help you find it." Amanda chipped in. Malina and Laoch's conversations were normally a spectator sport, with her intelligence not quite matching theirs, but with the matter at hand, she felt it prudent to give her input.

"Which is why she won't do that." Laoch responded with another sip of root beer. "Are you gonna ask your dad for help?"

"Still no. Like I said, I want to do this myself."

"What, you're still trying to make up for that? Malina, it's been five years." The boy was met with a glare, which he returned with a roll of his eyes. "Alright, fine. Do it yourself. But keep him in mind."

As they spoke, the three were unaware of the four possessed vacuums, which had now taken positions over air vents. Then, with more force then ordinarily possible from such a machine, they started to rapidly suck in air.

"Do we have any idea if Aiddie's gonna attack again?" Amanda asked worriedly.

"It's less of an 'if' and more of a 'when.'" Laoch noted. "Me and Malina were talking about how it probably needs down-time."

"Yeah. Don't worry, Amanda, we'll be ready when-" Malina stopped, her face filled with panic. "Oh my god, you're bleeding!" Amanda's face filled with the same emotion.

"What?! Where?"

"Your nose!"

"Yeah, bit of a nosebleed." Laoch confirmed with another sip. The blonde brought her hands up to her face and stood up to go to the bathroom.

"Pinch your nose!" Malina yelled after her. Amanda had some difficulty opening the door, but managed to do so, and ran to the bathroom to take care of the bleeding. "Oh, I hope she's okay."

"She'll be fine. She's not a hemophiliac."

"She isn't 'fine' just because she won't die!" Malina chided.

"Uh-huh. Hey, you think it's Aiddie?"

"How would Aiddie do that?"

"I don't know, it's been twenty-four hours since the LAST time an AI tried to kill everyone, it might be trying again." Laoch took another sip. "Things I never thought I'd say number forty-seven."

"But what's it doing?" Malina was almost interrupted by a yell from the door.

"Hey, the door's locked!" Garrett yelled as he tried to open it.

"Didn't Amanda literally just go through that door?" Laoch asked with a raised eyebrow.

"So either Garrett's JUST that dumb, or..."

"Aye, ya scunner!" A thick scottish accent interrupted. The source of the voice, a girl named Isla, approached the door. "Move aside!" The ginger grabbed a hair clip and started trying to pick the lock. She stepped back with a confused look on her face. "What the- it wasn't locked." She tried to open the door herself, to no avail. "Oh, whoever's behind this is gonna find themselves with a face full of my boot!"

"Aiddie?"

"Aiddie." Malina confirmed. "But what's it doing?"

_Amanda gets a nosebleed, and then the doors won't open even though they're unlocked... what's happening? _Another look of worry crossed Malina's face as she pieced it together.

_Air pressure._

"Laoch, we have to get out of here!"

"Alright, I'll get the door." Laoch stood up. "Everyone move!" As the students complied, Laoch ran at the door, attempting to force it open. As he went back for a second attempt, he was pushed aside by Garrett.

"Here, let me try!" The athlete said before attempting the same. Unlike the smaller brunet, Garrett was able to bust open the door, though he was left sprawled on the floor by the action. Amanda emerged from the bathroom when she heard the door fly open, still taking care of her nose. Malina ran to her, and once she could be confident the other students couldn't hear, spoke to the blonde.

"Amanda, it's Aiddie! We need to get to the warehouse, then your nose should feel better too!" The brunette grabbed her girlfriend's hand and ran toward the exit, having similar issues as Garrett with the door. However, another opening was made when Laoch ran straight through the window, shattering it.

"You two go, Garrett and I are gonna ram down the classroom doors!" Laoch ordered as he got up. Malina nodded as she and Amanda ran past him. Laoch re-entered the school, and moved to the closest door Garrett hadn't gotten.

* * *

Malina pulled the two encyclopedias to open the secret vault, and ran with Amanda to the computer lab. All was as it had been, everything where Amanda had sorted it and the power on. As Malina sat at the keyboard, Amanda entered one of the pods.

"But if it's Aiddie, why didn't your computer go off like last time?"

"Must've masked it. That's one more thing I need to figure out in the future." Malina replied as she typed. "Virtualization."

"I love you." Amanda said as the pod doors closed.

"Love you too." Malina said into the microphone.

On Xanadu, Amanda landed on her feet at first, but fell onto her back almost immediately.

_I'll need to work on that..._

"Amanda, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I just landed weird."

"Alright. Look to your left, the tower should be in that general direction. Remember, I'll virtualize myself once you're close enough, so don't worry!" Amanda nodded as she drew her blade. All she could see was sand and rocks, but she followed Malina's instructions regardless.

That was another thing she loved about Malina- she could trust her. In seven months, the brunette had never once even tried to trick her, very much unlike her friend Laoch. He had occasionally gotten her to say or do very stupid things, such as the time she'd proudly announced that she thought Hitler's killer was a hero, but Malina had never led her astray. When she said 'go left,' she meant it. And the three cube monsters seemed to be proof of that once again as they blocked her path and opened fire.

Amanda readied her blade, and found that it stopped a laser dead, seeming to absorb the blast entirely. As she stepped out of the way of another one, she used her sword to block the third.

"Amanda! I take it you found some monsters?"

"Yeah, the cube ones!"

"Alright, Laoch didn't have too hard a time with those. You can do it!" Amanda charged at the monsters, blocking shots as she neared the first one. With a clean slash of her sword, she vanquished it, and soon moved on to the other two. Her technique wasn't great, but it was good enough as she cut down the other two. After looking around and seeing nothing, the blonde continued in the correct direction.

* * *

Laoch ran through yet another door, sprawling on the floor of yet another classroom. The other students followed him out into the hall as he stood up.

"All of you, get outside!" Laoch yelled, the sound of his shouts being followed by Garrett ramming another door. Laoch rolled his shoulder as Garrett came up to him.

"Alright, that should be all of them. Now we need to get out, too!"

"Yup, come on!" As the two ran, however, they were stopped in their tracks by two vacuum cleaners. Laoch could tell they weren't plugged in, so their functionality could only be attributed to one thing.

_Aiddie. _Before he could think further, the vacuums came closer, their hoses flailing wildly. Laoch, looked to his right, staring at the window.

_...Crap._

Garrett turned as he saw Laoch run at the window, smashing through it before falling to the ground below. He bent his knees as he landed, rolling backwards to spread out the force, allowing him to take the fall without injury. Garrett looked at the oncoming vacuums before jumping out as well, attempting to copy Laoch's technique. The two vacuums rolled out the window, reversing the suction to allow themselves to slowly descend to the ground as they were joined by the other two.

"Business as usual..." Laoch grumbled.

* * *

Amanda continued through the desert sector, scanning the area for more monsters. It was strange- she'd expected to find more than just three cubes. After seeing nothing for quite some time, Amanda jumped back as several of the small creatures Laoch had fought the previous night appeared in her path- fifteen, if she could count them properly. Amanda readied her blade, but couldn't react fast enough to avoid or block all of the lasers, and her virtual form shattered as she returned to the physical world.

"Amanda!" Malina yelled as the pod opened, and Amanda fell forward. "What happened?"

"A bunch of bugs ambushed me! I couldn't block all their lasers-"

"Hey, it's alright. I'll call Laoch and tell him to get over here. I'm proud of you for trying." The two girls smiled at each other as Malina grabbed her phone and speed-dialed their comrade. "Laoch, are you there?"

Back at the school, Laoch was trying to hold the phone to his ear as he dodged the flailing hoses.

"Yeah, just fighting some vacuums!"

"What are you- never mind, it's Aiddie, isn't it?"

"Probably- gah!" Laoch shouted as one of the hoses hit him in the arm. "So, what do you need?"

"Amanda got devirtualized. You need to get down here!"

"Can Amanda take over against these things?"

"I don't know, she's exhausted after Xanadu." Laoch ducked under another hose before replying.

"Right, lovely. What do you want me to do with these?"

"If you can't trash them, then lose them!"

"I'll give that a shot..." Laoch answered before his phone was swatted out of his hand by one of the vacuums. They'd surrounded him now, slowly approaching with their hoses flailing about, threatening to make contact at any moment. Laoch grabbed the next hose to strike him, violently pulling the vacuum attached towards himself before hitting it with a side kick. As Laoch took a fighting stance, the school's top athlete stopped another hose with his arm, tackling the vacuum cleaner and tying the hose around it. As Laoch dodged the others, the first, which had righted itself, was tackled by Isla, who until then had been watching Laoch try to fight them. As she and Garrett got up to attack the other two vacuums, Laoch slipped away towards the factory.

* * *

Laoch arrived and ran straight for the pod, which closed as he entered thanks to Malina being at the ready with the virtualization code.

"Just get close to the tower, I'll virtualize myself at your location." Malina instructed through the headset as he landed.

"I know the drill." Laoch smirked as he readied his weapon. "So, what got her?"

"The bugs you fought last night. She's only got a sword, Laoch."

"Right, so at least I'm useful for something. Which way?"

"To your left. What happened with the vacuums?" Laoch responded as he started running.

"Isla and Garrett took over. I didn't tell them anything, they just decided to step in."

"Well, I hope they can manage." Malina sat back with a sigh, watching Laoch's movements. "Amanda?"

"Yes?" The blonde replied, having had very little to do for the past few minutes.

"Should I stay here, so I'm ready once Laoch's at the tower, or should I go help at the school and leave Laoch to defend the position for a bit?" Amanda thought for a moment.

"I think Laoch can handle waiting at the tower. The other kids need your help." Malina nodded.

"Alright. Laoch?" Malina spoke into the headset. "Once you get there, I'm going to be a bit. I'm heading to the school, Amanda will keep an eye on you and let me know when you're there."

"Alright, so this is an assault AND defense." Laoch grumbled. "Understandable. I'll hold out as long as I can." Malina nodded as she handed the headset to Amanda, planting a kiss on the blonde's lips before running to the exit.

"I love you!" The brunette shouted behind her.

"Love you!" The shorter girl shouted back. The blonde placed the headset into position. "Laoch? Can you hear me?"

"No, the mic's off."

"Uh oh! How do I turn it on?"

"It IS on, genius, how do you think I heard you?" Laoch rolled his eyes as he took cover behind a rock. On the opposite side, a dozen bugs had taken position, ready to strike should he emerge. After Amanda pouted for a moment about having been tricked again, the blonde looked at the map to see Laoch wasn't moving.

"What's wrong? Did you find the bugs?"

"Yep. Wish me luck!" Laoch rolled out from behind cover, taking aim at each bug and firing. The boy reused his tactic of diving, rolling, sidestepping, and blocking shots with his arms. After fifteen shots, all twelve had been destroyed. "Right, that wasn't terrible. Still going the right way?" Laoch asked as he started running again.

"Yup!" The girl confirmed. The smile was soon replaced by a frown. "I hope Malina's going to be OK."

"Don't worry about her. She's the toughest girl I know. Granted, she's one of maybe five."

"Does that include me?"

"Yeah, the bar's not SPECTACULARLY high, but the point is, she'll be fine."

* * *

Malina arrived at the school, glancing around to see if she could find any vacuum cleaners. Sure enough, as if summoned by her concern, two such machines emerged from the bushes, hoses flailing as wildly as before. She tried to wonder what happened to Isla and Garrett as she simultaneously dodged the machines' attacks, and while she was largely successful, one attack managed to find its mark at her solar plexus, sending the girl stumbling back from the impact with a shout, and her trilby to the ground.

The brunette rolled to the side as the two hoses crashed down on the spot she'd occupied, and quickly stood up as the blows kept coming. After one attack, Malina grabbed the hose in question, holding it as she continued to dodge the other. What she hadn't expected, however, was the suction of the hose increasing, causing it to become adhesive to her. Malina hardly had time to gasp before the machine used this to flail the girl around, slamming her into the ground repeatedly. She grabbed the hose once again, bringing the vacuum closer to her until she could try to punch it, though this attempt only left her hand in pain.

The vacuum threw the brunette several yards, and Malina could see both of the machines approaching her as she struggled to stand. As she closed her eyes to brace for the next attack, she heard a yell with a distinct scottish accent. The girl opened her eyes to see Isla, wielding an assisted-opening knife, hacking through one of the hoses, shredding it as Garrett started to punch the other, his attacks seeming more effective than hers had been. As Garrett's vacuum shut off, and Isla's being substantially less threatening, Malina took a fighting stance, but Garrett beat her to the punch, destroying the other one.

"Aye! What're these things doing? How are they workin' without a plug, eh?" Isla turned towards Malina, putting away her blade. "Look, Garda's Girl, I'm unarmed or we're gonna have a wee problem."

"No problem here, you might have saved my life." Malina assured. Garrett walked towards Malina's hat, picking it up as Isla and Malina spoke.

"Aye right! Do YOU know what's makin' this 'appen?"

"I don't." The girl lied. "But I think they're finished now."

"Hey, is this yours?" Garrett asked, walking over with the trilby.

"Oh! It is, thank you!" Malina retrieved the headwear gratefully, placing it on her head. Before any more words could be exchanged, Malina's phone started ringing. She answered it.

"Yes?"

"Malina, Laoch's at the tower! Hurry back!"

"Alright, I'm on my way." Malina hung up. "Alright, you two, go check on everyone else."

"Oi! And what're YOU gonna do?" Malina thought up a quick excuse.

"I'm going to go down to the station to let my dad know what happened, maybe he'll look into it!" Malina took off before the two could ask any more questions.

* * *

Malina entered the virtualization code quickly before rushing into the pod. She hated the seconds between the doors closing and full virtualization, largely due to her claustrophobia. But if they were going to be fighting Aiddie regularly, she would need to learn to deal with it somewhat.

"Don't worry, Malina." Amanda's voice soothed the brunette. Her girlfriend was well aware of her fear, and filled the latter half of the moment before virtualization with comfort as Malina landed gracefully on the desert ground.

"About time!" Laoch yelled, blasting away at more bugs. "Get into the tower and shut it off!" Malina nodded before sprinting towards it, phasing through it as before.

The interior of the tower shone with a blue light, with what appeared to be moving and alternating code decorating the walls. As she neared the center of the circular platform, she found herself rising once again, and was elevated to the second platform above. A holographic screen appeared in front of her, and she placed her hand on it.

/Malina/, the screen read. However, the text soon changed to read /Code: Xanadu/.

Her gaze turned downward, and she saw a blinding white light emerging from the base of the tower, shielding her eyes as it filled her vision.

* * *

Lunchtime was upon the three once again as the effects of the Temporal Displacement hit them.

"Welp." Laoch took a sip of the root beer he once again found in his hand. "We did it again."

"How'd the fight with the vacuums go?" Amanda asked her girlfriend.

"I just about lost." Malina admitted. Seeing the worry on the blonde's face, she added, "But Isla and Garrett swooped in right when they needed to."

"So they saved both of you?" Malina and Laoch nodded in sync. "Huh. Maybe it'd be a good idea to let them into the group?"

"Nope." Laoch objected. "Garrett's dumb as a stump, and Isla's... Isla."

"I don't agree with Laoch's reasoning, but we've got the same conclusion." Malina replied. "They were a pretty big help, but for now at least, we should keep the circle small. Maybe we'll invite them in later, okay?" The blonde smiled.

"Alright." The girl giggled as she picked up her sandwich. "Nothing like lunch before and after that!"

* * *

**WHOO! Finally got this sucker done! It's been, what, two months? Sorry about that! Had college and work and stuff, and with the semester ending and the minimum wage going up, I have WAY more time on my hands! (And smaller paychecks, but WHO CARES?)**

**Again, let me know if you want to write a chapter or something, and thanks again for reading!**


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